Status and Availability

TEXES is offered at Gemini North in semester 2014B, probably during August 7-17.

Proposals for TEXES time are encouraged to include one or more of the TEXES team.

John Lacy [lacy@astro.as.utexas.edu], TEXES PI

Matt Richter [richter@physics.ucdavis.edu], galactic astronomy

Tommy Greathouse [tgreathouse@swri.edu], solar system

Dan Jaffe [dtj@astro.as.utexas.edu]

One or more members of the team will be present during the block of time when TEXES is on Gemini North.

Prospective PIs are encouraged to contact John Lacy or other members of the TEXES team for help with the technical details of proposals. Tom Geballe [tgeballe@gemini.edu] is the Gemini staff contact for TEXES.

As a visitor instrument, the way TEXES proposals are handled is slightly different than for Gemini facility instruments.
All Phase I proposals must be submitted to the various Gemini TACs in the usual manner using the PIT software. The proposed programs will be reviewed initially for technical feasibility by the TEXES team. For programs that are granted time by the time allocation committee(s), details of the observations will be determined largely in consultation with the TEXES team rather than with an NGO and a Gemini contact scientist. The Gemini contact scientist will only check the basic information (e.g., coordinates, guide star availability) at Phase II. Unlike observationswith facility instruments, observations using TEXES will not be defined in detail in the Observing Tool, although the OT will be used to pass target and guide star coordinates to the telescope systems. Once a source has been acquired, the observations will be made by members of the TEXES team using their own software to define telescope offsets and to take the exposures.

TEXES was offered at Gemini North as a visitor instrument in 2006B, 2007B, and 2013B. Commissioning took place in the latter part of February, 2006, with a demonstration science run following in early July of 2006 and queue observations thereafter. TEXES is used in a similar manner to the way it has been used at the Infrared Telescope Facility in the past.